a. [f. Gr. αὐτόματος (see prec.) + -OUS.]
1. Acting spontaneously; having power of self-motion.
1769. W. Jackson, in Month. Rev., XLII. 171. Their great, ineffable, autocratorical, automatous author.
1808. Knox & Jebb, Corr., I. 427. I long to be set at work, but I am not automatous: I need to be wound up.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., i. 36. He may accept the nebular hypothesis, but … must he not admit that the fluid haze was not automatous?
2. Of the nature of an automaton: a. ‘self-acting’ mechanically; b. acting involuntarily without conscious determination.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., V. xviii. (1686), 212. Clocks or Automatous organs. Ibid. (1682), Chr. Mor. (1756), 34. They who are merely carried on by the wheel of such inclinations are but the automatous part of mankind.
1867. W. Smith, Lat.-Eng. Dict., Automatarius … of or pertaining to an automaton, automatous.
